The winter weather will not deter the more than 250 midget racers who will gather at the Tulsa Expo Raceway in the QuikTrip Center at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds this week for the 27th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire. The quarter-mile clay track is indoors and moistened to offer some of the best side-by-side dirt track racing anywhere in the country. Four days of qualifying began Tuesday and ends on Friday, with the 50-lap the feature race this Saturday. Among the drivers competing for this year’s championship are NASCAR driver/owner and past winner Tony Stewart, Sprint car driver and five-time winner Sammy Swindell and three-time champion Kevin Swindell. Also trying to make the final is K&N Pro Series East Champion Kyle Larson who just recently finished the four-race International Midget Series in New Zealand by winning all four of those events. Larson won 30 races last year on both dirt and asphalt in seven different styles of race car on 20 different tracks in 123 starts and had four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts this year, with one second place finish.

The large qualifying field will be whittled down to 58 as racers accumulate points during the qualifying races to win a spot on the starting grid for the 50-lap A-Main feature on Saturday. The Tulsa Expo Raceway opens each day at 9 a.m., with hot laps on qualifying days beginning at 5 p.m. and races each night at 6 p.m. The final gets under way at noon on Saturday. For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.